EchoScene: Prodigal 6 - Farmer: Space to Move Forward

When the famine hit, Sonny was already at rock bottom. He had gone from throwing extravagant parties to throwing food to pigs. To Farmer Digsley, he just looked like another desperate worker trying to get by.

But something was changing. Out by the pigpen, Sonny started talking to himself. He muttered words about his father’s workers, about being unworthy, about wanting to be hired. To anyone else, it would have sounded like nonsense but Digsley noticed. He didn’t interrupt. He didn’t correct him. He didn’t even ask what he was doing. He just gave him space.

But that was the beginning of something sacred.
Sonny wasn’t losing focus, he was finding repentance.

It’s easy to look at someone else’s struggle and assume they’re wandering. But sometimes what looks like weakness is actually surrender. Sometimes what sounds like confusion is the quiet rehearsal of returning home.

Farmer Digsley didn’t realize it at the time, but his decision to stay silent was its own act of mercy. He gave Sonny room to wrestle, and in that space, God was already working.

Digsley summed it up simply: “Guess I gave him some space. Maybe it was just what he needed.”

Leaders, parents, mentors (anyone who loves someone in process) eventually face this same moment. You can’t rush a heart back to life. You can’t force repentance or maturity. But you can make room. You can hold the line with patience and trust that the same God who works in you is also working in them.

Letting go isn’t losing control. It’s trusting that grace still grows, even in the mud of a pigpen.